Lately I have been spending my tea drinking mostly on a lovely pu-erh cake I bought whilst I was in China. I am enjoying it VERY, very much indeed and find the 3rd and 4th wash of it the best.

Today I went into the (supposedly good) tea shop I often go to in London (England). I asked whether they had any pu-erh blocks/cakes as there were none on display. I thought that as it is a small shop, perhaps they dont have space for displaying it. I was quite upset to hear the shop assistant tell me that Pu-erh is 'old-fashioned' and not very popular. I am not aware that this should be the case.

To be honest - i dont think it was ever 'fashioned' here in London, so I dont know how it could be 'old-fashioned'.. (anyone is welcome to prove me wrong). She irritated me a little and so I told her that this was a shame and they should do something about it.. she half mumbled 'yes' whilst looking in the other direction.

What is the situation with this in the US - or anywhere else for that matter? I am hoping to buy some more pu-erh - but it looks like I will have to get it from one of the fantastic and much more helpful online sources..

Its the same thing in my area, there is one tea shop at the farmer's market and the very knowledgeable owner had never heard of puerh before I mentioned it to her. In my experience if you want to find good puerh or should I say any puerh you have to shop online.

I searched in Chinatown New York City, surely there must be good pu erh there? But I found very little, one chinese grocery had many varieties of what looks like lower cost loose pu erh (cheap price) and one $6 cake of pu erh the only one I found in New York City, have not tried it yet. Turns out there is one tea shop on the edge of chinatown that may sell pu erh but I did not find the shop.
Looks like the ones on ebay are the best and a few others online.
I thought London must have some good tea shop after all you all started the whole tea craze way back in the 1500's.

Varies by region in the US. In Los Angeles, pu'er is just starting as a fad at a teahouse in West Hollywood catering to superstar clientele. Most other teahouses only have cooked loose or mini-tuocha. Chado Teahouse has one or two cakes. Chinatown offers a few cooked cakes.

Tao of Tea in Portland sells quite a few cakes.

But, as Jogrebe says, it's online or nothing for most of us--especially for variety.

I know, but that's a little Eurocentric, isn't it? After all, the Japanese, Koreans, people in the Middle East and Central Asia, etc all caught on to tea by then, before the Brits started drinking it. People devoted their life to study the drink. Can't say there wasn't a crazy already --- so the Brits hardly "started" it.

1600 -- North America did not even have a single permanent colony in 1600, never mind the existence of the US.

MarshalN wrote:I know, but that's a little Eurocentric, isn't it? After all, the Japanese, Koreans, people in the Middle East and Central Asia, etc all caught on to tea by then, before the Brits started drinking it. People devoted their life to study the drink. Can't say there wasn't a crazy already --- so the Brits hardly "started" it.

1600 -- North America did not even have a single permanent colony in 1600, never mind the existence of the US.

pu'er is so old-fasioned. it's some Song dynasty shiznit, H-E-double-hockey-sticks this dank tea is tired. Even Russia was drinking pu'er half a millenia ago. Everybody better modernize...i'll do you all the favor of taking this passe tea off your hands, the older the better. Back in WeHo we ghost it retro, yo.

bearsbearsbears wrote:pu'er is so old-fasioned. it's some Song dynasty shiznit, H-E-double-hockey-sticks this dank tea is tired. Even Russia was drinking pu'er half a millenia ago. Everybody better modernize...i'll do you all the favor of taking this passe tea off your hands, the older the better. Back in WeHo we ghost it retro, yo.

bearsbearsbears wrote:pu'er is so old-fasioned. it's some Song dynasty shiznit, H-E-double-hockey-sticks this dank tea is tired. Even Russia was drinking pu'er half a millenia ago. Everybody better modernize...i'll do you all the favor of taking this passe tea off your hands, the older the better. Back in WeHo we ghost it retro, yo.

Puerh is the only way I rollllll, son. Green, oolong, black can make like a tea tree and leave. I got spinners on my gaiwans and lights on my tea tray. Grills on my yixing and platinum for my canisters. Far east side, represent.

EvenOdd wrote:Puerh is the only way I rollllll, son. Green, oolong, black can make like a tea tree and leave. I got spinners on my gaiwans and lights on my tea tray. Grills on my yixing and platinum for my canisters. Far east side, represent.

Enjoy.

So there is another just like me! Haha, that's awesome. Man I really want to try Pu-Erh, this paycheck I might go by a brick or cake.

PuEhr is da best and with ageing getting better. So - old? Yeah! Old-fashioned? Who cares ?
I'm on my way of starting tea-business in England (it'll take some time ;o), but if you're here in England, I suppose, we should be able to make some cooperation possible. So if you're interested, just gimme a shout (email, icq) and let's talk about it.
What we're talking about are PuEhrs from China and lots and lots of another teas from China, TaiWan, Vietnam, India,.. everything's possible. Even teaware and stuff.